Schumer, Feinstein push on gun laws

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, two senators took to the Sunday morning shows to advocate reforms to the country’s gun control laws.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she plans to reintroduce the federal assault weapons ban in the Senate, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for specific restrictions on bullet clips and increased help for mentally ill citizens.

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Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), meanwhile, advocated a national commission on mass violence. Other Washington lawmakers discussed the school massacre without suggesting any policy changes.

Feinstein was both emphatic and specific.

“I can tell you that he is going to have a bill to lead on because as a first-day bill I’m going to introduce in the Senate and the same bill will be introduced in the House — a bill to ban assault weapons,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It will ban the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession. Not retroactively but prospectively. And it will ban the same for big clips, drums or strips of more than 10 bullets.”

These Senators’ remarks come just two days after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — where Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster .223 assault rifle as he killed 26 people, including 20 children.

Assault weapons were banned under the Federal Assault Weapons Ban from 1994 to 2004, but Congress allowed the ban to lapse. Obama has said he would support reintroducing of the bill.

“There will be a bill. We’ve been working on it now for a year,” Feinstein said. “We’ve tried to take my bill from ‘94 to 2004 and perfect it. We believe we have. We exempt over 900 specific weapons that will not fall under the bill. But the purpose of this bill is to get just what [New York] Mayor Bloomberg said, weapons of war, off the streets of our cities.”

“It’s being done with care, it will be ready on the first day,” Feinstein said. “I’ll be announcing the House authors, and we’ll be prepared to go – and I hope the nation will be prepared to help.”

Asked if she believes President Obama will support her legislation, Feinstein said, “I believe he will.”

Schumer on Sunday called for three specific steps Congress can take to stop gun violence in the United States, starting with the restoration of the federal assault weapons ban.

“One is to ban assault weapons, try and reinstate the assault weapons bans,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Second is to limit the size of clips to maybe no more than 10 bullets per clip, and third is to make it harder for mentally unstable people to get guns.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also spoke about the need to ban certain ammunition clips and types of guns that don’t belong in a non-military setting.

“Are there high ammunition clips that really have no value whatsoever when it comes to sporting, hunting and even self defense? That a person can buy body armor and can take that armor and use it to protect themselves while they kill innocent people,” Durbin said. “Why in the world would anyone, even Nancy Lanza, need a military assault weapon, designed for the military, with the ability to fire off hundreds of rounds?

“I’m all for sport and hunting and self defense” Durbin added. “This goes way beyond that.”

And Lieberman, who represents the state where the shooting occurred, said the next step should be to establish a commission on mass violence that can’t get lost in the gridlock of Congress.

“We need a national commission on mass violence, not to be in place of anything else the president or Congress or state governments want to do, but to make sure that the heartbreak and anger that we feel now is not dissipated over time or lost in legislative gridlock,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”